434. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 333–335.
Hope End.
Saturday [10 December 1831] [1]
I am going to tell you what you wished to hear about the reform bill & the unknown tongues,—at least all that Papa has told me about either of them. He things that the King & his ministers are certainly honest men,—that the next bill will be equally efficient with the last—that it will pass—and that, in the improbable case of its being rejected, a revolution must ensue. The bishop of Bath & Wells [2] has come over to the right side of the question;—and Lord Harrowby [3] is coming. Mr O’Connell [4] & Mr Hunt [5] have shown no principle, on this, as on other subjects,—& Lord London-don-don-derry (as Occyta calls him) is mad. The bishops, as a body, are supposed to be less mad than they were; & the compos mentis [6] may be proved by their next vote. Altogether, Papa’s view of politics, walks on the sunshiney side of the street. I advise your’s to cross over.
Now with regard to the unknown tongues. Four thousand persons are assembled every Sunday at Mr Irving’s chapel,—two thousand sitting, and two thousand standing; and after his fervent extempore prayer, he folds his arms in his black gown, & exclaims in his majestic manner, & deep solemn voice, “I wait, until it please the Holy Ghost to speak unto us by the mouth of his servants”. Then comes the unknown tongue: the most terrific sound, Papa says, that he ever heard or expects to hear. “Believe it, or do not believe it—you must be awed by it”. He was present at the first exhibition,—women shrieked & fainted, & there was a general rush towards the doors. Papa jumped upon a bench, & shouted to everyone who would hear him, that the danger of the pressure in rushing out, was greater than any danger they could meet with in remaining”; [7] and while he spoke, he thought that there was real danger: he mistook the voice of the exhibitor for the roar of flames. You may imagine what a voice it was. All London was & is, in a state of excitement. Everybody acquits Mr Irving of being intentionally deceptive,—and some people acquit the exhibitors—but there is not so much unanimity in the latter decision. Mr Nisbet the bookseller, [8] an intelligent & pious man & one who used to be a thick & thin follower of Irving, said to Papa—“I would not be too confident in them. I call Miss Emma Car[s]dale a light character.” [9] Papa recollecting that Mr Nisbet was a starch stiff presbyterian, & that “a light character” with him, might be a heavy character with anybody else, begged for an explanation. Mr Nisbet told him that Miss Emma & another inspirèe, had been heard talking & laughing very loud just before service, and arranging how they would disobey their husbands, whenever they happened to marry, by speaking in the unknown tongue, whether the aforesaid husbands like it or not. Miss Emma is not however, on all occasions, so selfwilled. She dined at Albury’s, Mr Drummond’s, [10] in company with Mr MacNeil, [11] —who is not a believer in spite of all that I told you,—& several of the faithful. On a sudden, symptoms of the tongues came on, Pythian contortions & agitations of her body, which always precede an oracle. But Mr MacNeil would not stand this. He fixed his eyes upon hers, exclaiming in the most imperious tone “I command you to be silent. Speak if you dare.” The young lady was quiet in a moment.
Papa heard “a very fine sermon” from him, on the subject of the tongues. Mr Irving was alluded to in it, in an affecting manner—as “one whom he loved with the love of a brother”. Did you ever hear, or are you hearing now for the first time, that Mrs Irving [12] dreams dreams, & sees visions? Visions are all the fashion in Mr Irving’s chapel,—where one man has seen a “handwriting on the wall”, and another, the “ghost of a skull”. I have not read Wesley’s Treatise, [13] because I talked to Papa, or rather heard him talk, the whole of yesterday. He is looking quite well,—a little thin, I [14] fancy—but everybody else calls that, fancy indeed. It is clear enough that nothing has been done. Nothing has been said to me—except an inference of Miss Clarke’s, about the non probability of our moving immediately. Of our moving sooner or later, there can be no doubt whatever. Papa enquired after you, even before he enquired after Mr Curzon,—& indeed made a great many minute interrogations about you. He wore a thick mask of high spirits yesterday. He must feel bitterly—and when I think only of him,—and I certainly ought to do so always,—I cannot wish his time of trial here to be much prolonged.
Is Mrs Boyd’s headache gone? I hope so. Give my love to her & Annie—and tell yourself that whenever I write a long letter or any kind of letter to you, I dont mean to saddle you with the necessity of answering it. Whenever I take it into my wise head, that you write to me because you cant help yourself .. then all my pleasure in reading what you write, comes to an end. This scribble must come to an end at any rate. In a great hurry,
Ever yours affectionately
EBB.
Think of my forgetting to tell you, that Papa certainly does not [15] believe in the tongues.
Address, on integral page: H S Boyd Esqr / Ruby Cottage / Malvern Wells.
Publication: Diary, pp. 293–294.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by Diary, p. 190, entry for 10 December.
2. George Henry Law (1761–1845).
3. Dudley Ryder, first Earl of Harrowby (1762–1847).
4. Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), Irish politician.
5. Henry Hunt (1773–1835), radical politician.
6. “Mental faculties.”
7. EBB used these closing quotation marks despite the lack of opening marks, and despite the fact that the quotation is indirect.
8. James Nisbet, bookseller and publisher, of 21 Berners Street, London.
9. An editorial in The Times, 26 October 1831, said: “We hardly know in what manner we are to treat the fooleries that are going on in the somewhat notorious Mr. Irving’s church. It seems some of his congregation have got the miraculous gift of tongues there, and ‘speak as the spirit gives them utterance.’ …” Mentioning “the noises which are made by the poor creatures who come forth,” the editorial names three of them, Miss Carsdale being one.
10. Henry Drummond (1786–1860), politician and joint-founder of the Irvingite church. He lived at Albury Park, Surrey.
11. Hugh McNeile (1795–1879) was Rector of Albury, 1822–34. At first sympathetic to Irving’s doctrines, he soon became severely critical of them.
12. Isabella Irving (née Martin), whom Irving had married in 1823 after an 11-year engagement.
13. Predestination Calmly Considered (1752), by John Wesley (1703–91).
14. Underscored twice.
15. Underscored three times.
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